Robin D. G. Kelly's Thelonious Monk: The Life & Times of an American Original---to me one of the truly stellar jazz biogs.
Anything by David Hajdu; especially Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life and his biog on Nat Cole. (I've also corresponded w/him and he seems truly nice).
Frank Buchman-Moller's You Just Fight for Your Life---the Story of Lester Young. (All the Pres biogs are worth reading).
Art Pepper's autobiog (written with Laurie Pepper); and Miles (written with Quincy Troupe) are self-gratifying and hampered by loads of BS, but I've read them both numerous times. Pepper is a spellbinding raconteur, and his insight into other musicians' work is interesting to read (if his comments about his own 'genius' are slightly delusional). Miles talking about music has been great food for thought.
The Benson book was mentioned. One thing that cracked me up: some poetic justice. I knew Eddie Diehl for years, and he had a bug up his ass about Kenny Burrell. It had to do with a record date where he was sent home and replaced by Kenny b/c the company wanted a 'name'. He neither ever forgot nor stopped bad-mouthing Kenny's playing til it came out of your ears. I guess it's SOMEWHAT understandable. Eddie WAS one of the best, and a truly good-hearted guy underneath it all. We're all sensitive, and rejection---perceived or real---can really hurt.
Anyway, in George's book when he got the call to go with McDuff he was to replace Eddie. His comments---and they were respectful---were (paraphrasing): '(Eddie) was a formidable musician----not on the level of Kenny Burrell...., but he definitely could play'. Eddie was still alive when that came out. I hope he read it---it MAY have shut his mouth. I doubt it though---shutting Eddie's mouth about ANYTHING, especially guitar players he was jealous of (their stature in the biz, not their playing), was a tall order. But I had quite a chuckle over that one...
I have a Cordoba classical and I wish it had a truss rod. The new Cordoba Stage I bought DOES have a truss rod and I'm glad, I have already had to use it.
In the measure with the Bb-7 chord, 4th note, you're playing a D natural and it needs to be a Db. You got me thinking about playing it an octave higher than what I've been doing.
From a purely guitar perspective - with limited notes available for chords - can anyone explain to me why some chords are described as flat 5 and others are sharp 11?
Can anyone describe a chord...
Is an Archtop Tribute AT101 model not the same (or pretty close to the same) as the ES-125C? Not quite the TDC but an option. There's a used one on Reverb right now, but the price is a little higher...
Hi, my guitar is a yamaha sa2200, and I'm happy. I would like to get a guitar more specific for classic jazz, with a very warm, soft tone. I thought about ibanez pm 200. What do you think? Am I at...
Being the proud owner of an early 70's Martin D28 with no truss rod, that I am not able to play because the action is so high, which breaks my heart, I'm with the "only guitars with truss rods" club.
Having owned both, I thought the DV Mark Little Jazz added a certain color and compression to the tone regardless of what guitar you are using, or even where the tone controls are set somewhat. To...
Regarding necks with no truss rod...
My dad bought a carbon fiber steinberger in the '80s. The salesman (Chuck Levins, Wheaton, MD) demonstrated it's sturdiness by swinging it from the neck and...
Transcribing is something that I really love and I really enjoy! I feel more comfortable learning and transcribing than writing, probably because when I was student at conservatory I had a lot of...
It's always a little bit tricky to write the transcription properly, for many reasons but principal rhythm and ornamentations...!
I feel always more comfortable learning by ear the solos than...
The headstock that Gibson put on the later Epis is what looks wrong to me. The original Epi headstock was known as the moustache, not open book, because it's subtly different, a little more of a...
Enharmonics
Today, 09:59 AM in Theory